Another dogwood

[Diane Miller]

Canon 7D2, 100-400 II at 135mm, ISO 200, 1/640 at f/6.3, tripod, stack of 14 in Zerene Stacker, Dmap with some artifacts retouched. The flower was in soft shade, a grassy field in the BG in more light. Clearing morning fog with nicely calm air.

[Norm Dulak]

A few suggestions, Diane. Please don't call it "another" dogwood, because that doesn't generate the interest and excitement that the image deserves. The image is well exposed, composed and sharp, but I don't think that the light background works as well as the one in your prior post, because the flower itself is so bright. Finally, did you actually need all the stacking and other manipulations to get a really good image? :S3: I like it, but wonder if there might have been a more straightforward way to achieve the same objective.

[John Robinson]

Nice one Diane
I have to say Norm took some of the words out of my mouth.! I don't mind the BG too much but why so many stacks ? I never use more than about 6. After all the more you use, the more chance of problems.
If stacking is all about DOF at the end of the day then it should be possible to work out he DOF at any given aperture and lens combination.
As far as I understand it -using a large apperture is supposed to get better definition- or is it two sops down from full apperture. Still a nice image whatever.
John

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, guys! I agree the bright BG isn't ideal, but it was that way so I decided to see how it came out. I could darken it a little -- will experiment.

In this case I did need that many layers, as the BG (tall thin-stalked grass with prominent seed heads) was fairly close and had too much texture at smaller apertures. At that distance and magnification, each increment, focusing from front to back, picked up more detail on each subsequent plane than the previous one.

But with Zerene, more stacks aren't really a problem. It handles them very well, and will reject any it doesn't need. With a need to minimize slight air movement, I focus on the closest part of the flower and then simply increment the smallest steps I can with the focus ring until I reach just past the back, and let the software align and mask.